• first organized by women who wanted to help the war effort
• then run by male commissioners who interfaced with the government and the union army
• official mission--to assist the medical department

Industrialization

• Mass production of guns after 1805, more efficiently after 1830 (mass production of rifles)
  
• large textile factories starting in 1830s
• railroads began to spread in the 1840s

Supplies

• linens and bedticks
• some were bought by the army from factories
• some were made by sewing circles--this was a time of transition between making things at home and factories
  
• some women's groups hired women to make them
• USSC maintained depots of supplies that could be distributed quickly
• food
• scurvy is now known to be caused by vitamin C deficiency
• potatoes, onions, sauerkraut and pickles were donated and shipped to the troops
  
• foods suitable for the sick, such as condensed milk and beef stock for soup
• vegetables and foods that would give strength
  
• transportation
• ships were chartered and set up as hospital ships to transport wounded and seriously ill soldiers
• the army didn't have an adequate ambulance corps until late 1862
• the Sanitary Commission continued to be able to get supplies where needed quickly

education and sanitation--the army needed standardized medical and sanitary practices

• advice for soldiers: eat vegetables, boil soup for 5 hours, always dig trenches for latrines, bathe weekly
  
• camp inspection form

But the Sanitary Commission also faced a lot of criticism

• the Army didn't like being criticized about what were traditionally women's issues
• Americans were uncomfortable with charity except to those defined as worthy and used to it organized on a local scale
  
• a new large scale of charity that required paid administrators
• much feuding between the surgeon general and the Sanitary Commission

Hospital organization

• The director of Satterlee Hospital, Isaac Hayes, had more scientific than medical experience
• more building up health than heroic medicine (bloodletting, etc.)
• nuns were the nurses--a surprising choice when anti-Catholic sentiments were still strong
  
• local elite women set up a library, entertainments, and education

Quick history of nursing:

• how is a nurse different from an aide or housekeeper?
• Florence Nightingale laid the basis of modern nursing in the Crimean war (1853-1856)
• Nursing training programs (at hospitals) did not begin until the 1870s in the US
• the new idea of nursing
• single (not distracted by families)
• moral
• you need the possibility of women having paying jobs
• standardized ways of doing things
• professional knowledge for nurses hadn't developed yet
  

• industrialization
• emphasis on efficiency and standardization is beginning
• effort to be more scientific